Passing Time
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Lisanna considers the relationship, or lack there of, that exists between she and Bickslow. - One-shot.


Even before her death, honestly, it was rare for Lisanna to keep something from her sister. They shared everything. _Everything_. And after her return from Edolas, this was upped to even the most mundane of things. Stuff that no one would even care to know about another person. They shared it in hushed whispers, even, some of their secrets. Theirs. The only two they'd ever truly be completely, one hundred percent, not lacking in the slightest honest to. Each other.

There was no one Lisanna trusted more than Mirajane.

And yet…

She wasn't going to be telling her about this.

At least not yet.

It was weird, honestly, the entire thing. Awkward. Embarrassing, maybe, even, for her. For him too, maybe. They weren't exactly anyone's dream ideal for a couple. Or even each others. Lisanna wasn't even so sure she wanted to be a 'couple' with someone else, at least not in the way that her sister was with guys, every so often. All in love and all that junk.

And she was nearly certain, truth be told, that they weren't that. A couple.

But they were...something.

"Lovers," Bickslow coined happily as his babies floated about, singing the same word as they sat in his filthy kitchen the next morning, eating the burnt eggs she'd made them.

"I don't love you," she replied simply though her face heated up from the insinuation.

But the seith only shook his head and he looked so odd, as he had the night before, without all his getup on. Lisanna wasn't certain she'd ever seen him without his visor and hood pulled tightly over his head. She had to have, of course, because she was aware of his...choice haircut, but couldn't recall the time in which this had taken place.

"And I don't love you, kid," he told her with a bit of a bemused look. She thought, maybe, he was mocking her, as he had a strange way of doing that, it felt like, where he said nonsensical things only, once tripping her up on them, acting as if she were the one to drag the conversation towards the insane. "That's not what that word means."

"Uh, yeah, it kind of does."

"Does not." And he'd lit up, a rolled cigarette, to have with his breakfast, which he puffed at from his chair as the kitchen table which was cluttered with newspaper. But only the funny pages. She wasn't sure what he did with all the other, many, sheets that came with a newspaper, but he seemed to only have the comics strewn about. "If I'm a fireman, does it mean that I'm the fuckin' salamander? Natsu? Fuck no. It means that I fight a fire. It's just a word for it, yeah? Lovers? Don't mean love."

"It means you fight love then?"

"Now you're being silly."

The whole thing was silly. The entire thing. That she was there and that she was actually eating her gross, burnt eggs, or that she was even therein the first place.

How did she get there in the first place?

Well, it started in the most innocent of ways. There she was, working a shift up at the bar for her sister, minding her business completely, not bothering anyone (though she and Happy were succeeding in annoying Natsu by not allowing him to sleep) when he came in with the Thunder Legion. She rushed (okay, maybe slumped) over to get their orders and caught on rather easily that they were in a rough patch of sorts. If there was one thing you had to be good at to be an attentive barmaid, Mira imparted on her frequently, it's eavesdropping.

"That can't be right," Lisanna told her flat out once. "Mira."

"It's not," Laxus grumbled as he happened to be over that day (he and her sister were inseparable when he wasn't out on a job) and frowned at the suggestion. "Don't be listening in on people. It's rude."

"Oh, hush." Mira made a face at him before smiling at her sister. "What's the point to it anyways? Just working the bar? If you can't pick up a few secrets here and there?"

Literally just working at a bar, it was turning out, for Lisanna. She found out quite quickly that she wasn't nearly as good at it as her sister, the entirety of things required to be successful in tending bar. She didn't...eavesdrop too well, she didn't feel nearly as attractive as Mira, that ditsy, coy shit Mira did to make the dumb drunks think she actually cared about their pathetic lives was lost on the youngest Strauss.

Honestly, she did good not to just abandon the work all together and hang around Natsu and Happy all day, goofing off.

But it was rather easy, honestly, to pick up on the down mood of the Thunder Legion that day. Even Freed, who was usually in the best humor, seemed rather cross. Not directed towards her, of course, but rather his two teammates.

She only made a bit of a face though when she walked away to get their drinks, glad to find their down attitudes weren't spreading to those around them. Other than that, she thought little on them. Any of them. She liked the Thunder Legion enough. A lot, even. She found them entertaining in their own separate ways. But she also figured it was none of her business nor interest what was going on with them.

And it wasn't.

Until she broke the one rule of bar tending.

"Oh, yeah, you can over serve people. I over serve Cana every night," Mira assured her sister.

"Do you want to get the bar shut down?" Laxus complained any time she tried to teach Lisanna in her ways. "Because this is how we get the bar shut down, demon."

"The more drinks they have, the higher the tab, the more inebriated they get, the less likely they'll remember their tab, then you can write anything on their tab and make the guild a lot more money when you have to dock their pay!" Mira was all smiles as her boyfriend and sister only stared in astonishment. She was undeterred, however, instead only insisting, "Honestly, Lisanna, that's exactly how Master tells me to run the place. How do you think we get out of debt?"

"The old man's gonna end up in jail," was all Laxus griped. "And you too, Mira."

"Well," Lisanna thought slowly. "They'll always have a way to save up bail money, at least."

Still, it wasn't Lisanna's intent to get Bickslow so absolutely wasted. At all. She actually found it a bit gross when people were in that state. Slurring their words and falling all about themselves. It wasn't that she didn't drink, but rather that in her tight circle around the hall, it wasn't seen as some sort of social thing, really. Natsu definitely could toss a few back, but him and her rarely did that for fun. There were so many other things to do. They could watch him fight Erza. Fight Gray. Fight Elfman. They could bother Lucy at her apartment. Bother Lucy at the guild. Bother Lucy out on a job. Hang around the guildhall and not even once do any of the jobs Lisanna was assigned with as barmaid.

So much to do.

And that wasn't even including all the fishing she, Happy, and Natsu did together.

Still, she'd more than realized she'd made a mistake when, given their argument they'd apparently been having among themselves, the rest of the Thunder Legion was nowhere around to deal with the clearly wasted Bickslow that night when it was finally time to close.

Now, Lisanna could have easily gone to Elfman, who would have dealt with it for her, or Laxus, who would have dealt with it because Mira made him, but she didn't want to bother them. Or allow them to continue to act like she was inept at her job (which yeah, okay, maybe she was, but it was so rude to point that out).

"No," she told Kinana when, at the end of the night, the man was passed out with his head pressed against the table, a thorough mess. "You deal with Cana every night. I was the one serving Bickslow. It's my turn."

Kinana, glad to have this duty relieved, only went off to deposit the money in the safe in the back, leaving Lisanna alone in the bar area with the intoxicated seith. Even his babies seemed to be dormant in that moment, instead just resting on the table, their bodies were a least, not moving in the slightest as she approached.

Now, she'd dealt with her fair share of guys up at the hall who'd had one two many. She'd had angry drunks, flirty drunks, any and every kind there was. She was prepared for whatever Bickslow turned out to be.

"Are you serious? Gross!"

Other than ill.

Yeah, no, when she shook his shoulder and he just turned and vomited all over her, Lisanna was not prepared for such a turn of events. At all.

Blood, sweat, and tears were all abound at Fairy Tail. Unfortunately, puke wasn't far behind. But all over her shoes? By someone that, while she had a friendly relationship with, but certainly not to the 'getting sick in front of one another' kind of way.

She was more than done with the man by that point and Kinana, also a bit green at the thought, only led him up to the infirmary, to sleep off his troubles. Then came the terrible task of cleaning it up and oh, wow, Mira stopped by to check up in how closing was going right at the perfect time.

Laxus, who was with her, only went upstairs to berate the barely conscious Bickslow.

The next day, after spending most of it sobering up, Bickslow was ordered to march down to the Strauss house and apologize to the youngest of the brood, both by Freed and Laxus. And Evergreen, in a roundabout way. She couldn't have him mucking up the Thunder Legion's relationship with the Strausses, after all. For personal reasons. That she did not wish to go into, so he better stop implying things about it.

Still, he was a showman above all. Even after a thorough night of drinking, when duty called, an acrobat was always up for the call. He sludged into his gear and muttered to his babies it was best to go ahead and get it all over with.

She was least than enthused when, upon opening the door, she found him standing there. At the sight of her though, he only bowed deeply at the waist, for fear she would tell Freed if he didn't (it had also been an instruction, after all) before, in his typical bravado, he loudly apologized for his behavior the night before.

"I don't accept."

"Eh?"

"Now if you'll excuse me-"

"Don't accept? This is outrageous! How could you not accept?"

"Easily." And she began to shut the door.

He wouldn't have that, however, and only quickly stuck his foot in there to stop this from occurring.

"Bickslow-"

"I thought you Strauss kids had to be fucking nice?" he griped. "Isn't that, like, a rule? I feel like you should be written up for this."

"What are you talking about? And this is really creepy, coming over here and acting like this." "

Creepy? How am I creepy?"

"Literally in every way."

"Oh." And he removed his foot the doorway then. "You really think that?"

She could have just closed the door. But as with a lot of things that she would quickly come to discover in her relationship with Bickslow, it was that she always had that option, yet never took it. There was something in the back of her head that insisted, almost, that she do so. That she back out. That she flat out tell him no every single time they ever had any sort of interaction, but…

"Well, no." She fully opened the door then. "I mean, I think that other people definitely think that and I'm pretty sure you want most of them to think it, but-"

"Imagine trekking all the way here, after being violently ill-"

"You were drunk. Not sick. Ill of, at best, your own accord-"

"-only to arrive and have the person you were doing all this for, that you got all dressed up for, that you put a happy face on for, basically call you a creep." He shook his head. "If I didn't know better, Lisanna, I would think that you were raised by wolves. But as it were, it was merely a demon. Though worse, to some, as a savior of souls, I can understand. We got that in common anyways, eh? Souls and all? So I forgive you. Soul saver to soul savior."

She only blinked. Then she did again. Finally, she remarked, "Are you really savior to anything? You captured a few souls and now force them into doing your labor."

"They do that because they want to."

"Really? Or do you just mind bend them into believing that?"

"And you save anything? More like you eat souls and absorb their power. You're practically a murderer."

"Like you know anything about it."

"I'm the master of souls," he retorted before lifting up his visor enough to flash her his wild eyes. "I know everything about it."

They had a staring match then for a few seconds before, with a snort, she gave him an evil eye of her own.

"You," she accused then, "puked on me. That's not so easily forgiven. Even if you are over here apologizing for it."

"Ah, I see now, kid, you want a fair trade, huh?" He nodded down to his own feet. "Try and keep it away from fabric, huh? All shoes."

"Wha- I am _not_ vomiting on you."

"Your loss."

"This is why people call you creepy."

He dropped his attitude once more before kicking at the ground. "Yeah, well, just trying to make things even, is all."

"I'll pass, thanks."

He couldn't go back to Laxus and Freed (and Evergreen) without some sort of a truce called between him and Lisanna, however. No. He had to do something to make things up to her. Something…

"I'll treat ya," he offered then, resolved once more. "To drinks and a meal. All even."

"I mean, just covering your tab and giving me a nice tip would probably be a good start-"

"Dinner it is."

And even though she actually had plans that night (tentative; she was going to hang out with Elf and probably stick around the house for a meal with her siblings), she still found herself getting her things all together and heading out to meet the man, sometime later, for dinner and a drink.

She tried very hard to pretend like this wasn't the first time she was doing that. Meeting a man for a dinner and a drink. She tried to imitate Mira, honestly, who was far more worldly and experienced than her. In most ways, sure, but the ways of men, definitely. And she didn't rightly feel, anyways, as if the pair were on a date. Her and Bickslow. It felt more like friends meeting up, maybe, kind of.

Mostly it just felt awkward.

"Light weight, eh?"

Until he said that, having taken note of her hardly sipping on her beer. Lisanna, as with all Fairy Tail members, could smell a challenge far off and was never one to back down from it. So she guzzled down her mug of ale before, with the death gaze, retorted to the seith simply, "Not if you're buying."

That way that he cackled had never sat too right with her, but in that moment, it, along with the gleeful cheers from his babies, only seemed to egg her on.

And lead to some less than desirable decisions. She didn't recall all of it, honestly, as the night seemed to blur, but she did remember having to make up an excuse the next day, to Mirajane, about where she'd been. Even though she was a grown woman. And Mira wasn't her mother. Or had any say so in the things that she did anyways.

She felt silly, Lisanna did, and even more so the next time she saw Bickslow. She was blushing and embarrassed and flustered and Happy, who'd been sitting in her lap at a table with their friends, took notice immediately as he began to rib her mercilessly under the assumption she was reacting to something Natsu had said.

But she only ignored him as Bickslow, taking notice of her eyes, glanced over. They stared at one another for what was probably less than a second, but felt like an eternity, truly. But he seemed, even beneath his visor, to lack recognition. Instead of motion to her or even looking the least bit flustered, he took his place once more with the Thunder Legion as if nothing had happened.

Only something had happened.

Hadn't it?

Well, obviously so, but at the same time… Lisanna had never been in this sort of position before. With a man. At all. In any form. For Bickslow to now seemingly be disinterested felt… Well…

She wasn't into him. Honest. Not really. So she wasn't, like, heartbroken. But she was a bit confused. Sort of. It was a bit of a stereotype, after all, guys being this way. And though she had no firsthand experience, again, she knew from Mira's many stories that it wasn't uncommon.

If she wasn't interested in Bickslow in a serious way, why should she assume he'd want to pursue her either?

And if she just pretend, especially if she didn't remember much anyways, then… Then couldn't she just pretend it didn't happen?

No. She knew she couldn't. But she had to pretend in that moment, just to get her blush to die sown some.

It did bring up an interest she'd never really seemed to have before with her fellow guild mates. She'd now, officially, slept with one of them. Her. Shocking, to say the least. But did that mean… Were others sleeping together as well? Not in the out there way, like Mira and Laxus, but rather the discreet way? The...Lisanna and Bickslow way?

Was everyone sleeping together? In some facet? Would it make her feel less embarrassed to believe this? She tried hard, but for some reason, she felt extremely alone in this regard.

Over a week went by before she and Bickslow even spoke again. She wasn't working that day, but had come in to glance over the job board when, suddenly, there was Bickslow, looking over the requests just as carefully as she.

"Going on a job?" He seemed to snicker. "Huh? Lisanna?"

"Pick a good one," some of his dolls hissed.

"Choose carefully," the others agreed.

She only frowned at them before him as she asked, "What do you want? Bickslow?"

"Can't a man choose a job anymore? Sheesh, kid, ya fuck a woman raw and suddenly she thinks that she can just control your every-"

"Shut up!" And he hadn't been speaking loud, not really, but her reaction was immediate as she took to trying to shove him away from her, glancing around to check to see if anyone noticed. Or cared. "Why would you even-"

"Don't touch me." He just stood there, after she shoved at him (in vain), before feigning dusting his clothes. "I have an image to uphold around here, you know. Can't let just anyone go pushin' me around."

More importantly though, he'd been told to make nice with Lisanna by the others. If they were caught arguing, Freed and Laxus (and Ever) would not been too pleased. Especially if they found out why they were arguing…

Well, Freed wouldn't care too much, no doubt, though he'd probably lecture him on being more a gentleman. But Laxus (and Ever) would see it as him encroaching and possibly ruining what was going on with the Strauss family. He couldn't have that.

Not to mention Lisanna's oaf of a brother wouldn't take too kindly with him teasing her. Now, the seith didn't care much about other opinions and all, but he just wasn't in the mood to deal with the ogre. Which would, again, lead to the wrath of the others on his team.

Namely Ever.

She huffed some, Lisanna did, as she didn't want to draw attention to them either. So, with a shake of her head, she turned back to glance over the jobs once again.

"These jobs suck," the man decided after they'd both fallen into unease. "Don't you think so, babies?"

"Yeah, Papa," most agreed. "They suck!"

"Ah, well. Freed's out of town, Ever's busy, Laxus ain't around. What am I to- Oh, wow, Lisanna!" And he sounded animated then, turning to face her once more. "What do you say kid? Wanna hang out?"

"I want you to stop calling me a kid," she said bluntly, refusing to look at him. "And besides, I just said that I'm going on a-"

"These jobs blow." And he blew air through his nose heavily, as if to punctuate this. "Let's get a drink. Again. Your treat this time."

"Why," she griped with a frown now, "would I do that?"

"I dunno, kid. Why would you?"

She didn't know.

But just like with all other decisions he presented her with, she found herself unable to deny him. And it wasn't a 'magical' thing or anything. He wasn't, like, mind controlling her. She just…

Well…

Maybe she kind of liked Bickslow? At least a little?

Or maybe just any guy who was willing to actually sort of pay attention to her. Even if it was only to get her drunk off cheap booze and, some times, sleep together.

They didn't that night, but it was only because Lisanna had something to do the next morning (she was going fishing with Natsu and Happy) and she had the wherewithal to know she didn't want to miss that. Least be asked questions she didn't want to answer when she turned up late or not at all.

It was weird, but they almost fell into something of a pattern then. If they were both free, they were each others...date? They weren't official and she was nearly certain that, were Bickslow not so much of a, well, creep, he probably would be seeing other women also, and she definitely could be seeing other men, you know, if she had been, to begin with, but…

Maybe this was growing up. Or at least growing. She'd always imagined her first time being with, well, her boyfriend. Her first boyfriend. Her only boyfriend. And yet it had been rushed and gross, really, and not something she wanted to dwell much on. The second time either. But it was something. Even if it seemed to be a secret between the two of them.

Sometimes she worried it was out of embarrassment that the seith seemed hesitant to call what they had as more than friendship, much less bring it up to anyone in his close knit circle of friends. But other times she realized it was for the best, anyways. Because if another guy, any guy, really, showed the least bit of interest in her, she'd probably stop agreeing to it. To go out with the seith. To come back home to the shitty little apartment with him.

He didn't seem to mind this, given it felt pretty obvious. She didn't spend the times he was away on jobs pining after him, and she figured he hardly thought of her, when she wasn't directly in front of his face. That was fine. Of course it was. Because they were just passing time. That was all.

Very adult. Very Mirajane.

"We're friends," she decided for the man that day in his kitchen as she wished his dolls were pets, instead of souls, and she could just pawn her gross breakfast off on them. They did have a charm to them, at least, for what it was worth. "Bickslow."

"I don't fuck most my friends," he offered around a coffee mug that she was nearly certain he'd spiked with something, "but hey, if it works;"

Still, she only sighed, hardly glancing around her surroundings, as she said, "You know, you could clean some. When you have guests."

"Guests, sure, fine. But you? My nearest, dearest friend?" He snickered. "What's a little dirt between friends, eh?"

Probably the same as a secret between siblings, but, at least for that day, Lisanna resounded to continue keeping it. She wasn't sure why. Probably because Mira would try and label things or, worse, _fix _them between she and Bickslow. OR sic Laxus on him.

She'd definitely sic Laxus on him.

And try and make Bickslow either, you know, commit or quit. Or something equally as stupid as that.

Or worse yet, Mira would give her that disapproving gaze and say she was being used or that Bickslow was no good or why would she go and do that, huh? Throw away her dream of being with her one and only and only her one and only when, for all she knew, she could have been out meeting him instead of sitting in Bickslow's filthy kitchen, eating the gross breakfast she'd made, as his wooden dolls floated about, chasing one another around the tiny space?

No.

Lisanna didn't want to deal with any of that. Not yet. Not any time soon.

When the one and only came along, she wanted to kind of just wanted to be able to brush Bickslow and all of this aside as if it hadn't happened. Passing time would come to an end and they would just… Go back to how things were.

Before he vomited on her shoes.

She was certain the seith would be just as grateful, were she to arrange it out for him in that very way. And it went both ways. If some other woman somehow got passed...all his...traits and somehow…

Well…

If Bickslow met someone, it would be just as well. She could go back to waiting around to do the same and they could be friends, still. Real friends. Normal friends. And she'd be just fine with that. Honestly.

One day this would all feel like a silly dream and, probably, she and Bickslow wouldn't reflect on it that often anyways.

It was silly and stupid and, at most, it did a good job at making them feel better about themselves in the moment, but moments end. Silliness ends.

Just...not any time soon, it seemed. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the day after. But it hadn't been yesterday and wouldn't be in the upcoming few minutes as they finished their meal.

"I guess," he was saying then though, "that I could at least dust sometimes. For my own health too, you know."

"Mmmm," Lisanna hummed as he puffed again at his cigarette and she considered making plans with him again, for the next night. Just to go out. Do something. Considering all her friends were out on jobs. "Couldn't hurt."


End file.
